A change of government next election would see National Standards scrapped.

Labour's education spokesman Chris Hipkins said the Labour Party would scrap National Standards in their current form.

For some time the party has said it would look at a scheme to track student progress against the national curriculum.

The policy is still a work in progress, but Mr Hipkins vowed not to publish any aggregated data.

He described the standards as "vague".

"National Standards are no use basically; they're not consistent, they're not providing reliable, accurate data and they don't have an educational purpose."

Education Review Office reports would give schools a picture of how well schools are doing, and Labour would strengthen that information, he said.

"We think parents deserve quality information about how their kids are doing."

Labour are not alone in this policy. Greens' co-leader Metiria Turei said the party would campaign on the same front next election.

She said the Greens had opposed legislation the National-led Government had brought in under urgency within its first 100 days in office to enact National Standards in primary and intermediate schools

Education Minister Hekia Parata said Labour were sending mixed messages over National Standards.

"I believe David Shearer said they weren't going to abolish National Standards last year, then he said National Standards would be optional to schools to take on as they feel fit. So who would know what Labour is doing?